While I was walking to work this morning I was scrolling through my iPod, trying to decide what NZ music to listen to to start off NZ Music Month. Fly My Pretties? Split Enz? The Great Kiwi Song Book?
It was a difficult choice but I settled on one of my favourite Kiwi artists, Dave Dobbyn.
Listening to Dave got me thinking, what is my favourite Kiwi song, the one that reminds me of this great country we live in? After a lot of deliberating I have to say that my favourite is Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn, with Herbs on back-up. My reasoning is because it’s connected to Footrot Flats: A Dog’s Tale, that classic Kiwi movie that I loved when I was a kid, and still do. The opening notes (Da, da, da, do, do, da, da, da) cheer me up no matter what mood I’m in and it’s one of those songs you can’t help singing along to.
What’s your favourite Kiwi song? Why makes it such a Kiwi song?
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My faves: Don’t fight it Marsha (it’s bigger than the both of us) Blam Blam Blam http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/dont-fight-it-marsha-its-bigger-than-both-of-us-1981 Culture? The Knobz http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/culture-1980 Maybe – Sharon O’Neill http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/maybe-1981 …
yes to all!!!
When I was a teenager, Split Enz and Dragon were often on the ABC’s “Countdown”. It was my introduction to Kiwi music. I still like kiwi music and I have placed a hold for Gin Wigmore Gravel & Wine.
I’m tossing up between “Welcome Home” by Dave Dobbin, and “Six months in a leaky boat” by Spit Enz. At least we can agree on the artists!
So many great songs I can’t really say but Blue Smoke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS5fN9bo1Vc is right up there. I think as a country we just love songs – its amazing the intergenerational singalong power of so many of our songs. Herbs would be faves too with Sensitive to a smile http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/sensitive-to-a-smile-1987 and French Letter http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/french-letter-1995
The song that always pops into my head when I’m thinking about Kiwi music is the Mutton Birds’ “Dominion Road.” I’m not quite sure why it stands out from so many other favourites, but it’s something about the quality of the sound that just seems so very Kiwi.
It’s got to be something by Don McGlashan. But which one? Dominion Road does spring to mind but then there’s Andy. Or White Valiant. Or A Thing Well Made. Why are they such New Zealand songs? Because they made it O.K. to hear about ” a shop not far from Cathedral Square” in a song, because he wrote a song just so he could put the word “flat” in it, because every time I fly into Wellington I start singing “she loves Wellington, she was born there, she grew up out in the Hutt Valley”. And because of the euphonium.
I do not dream of Sussex downs
or quaint old England’s quaint old towns;
i think of what may yet be seen
In Johnsonville or Geraldine
Denis Glover
Gosh, too many to choose just one:
anything by Split Enz and Crowded House, Don’t Fight it Marsha, Dominion Road, Why does love do this to me, Not Given Lightly by Chris Knox (yes I know most people hate it) – I love it.
Love Gin Wigmore, Gravel and Wine is a stunner of an album, Kendra (check her out on You Tube doing Nina Simone covers – awesome), Sharyn O’Neill, Julia Deans, The Chills, The Verlaines, Straitjacket Fits, the list could go on… oh and an 80’s Christchurch band The Prodigies – but that’s cause I’m married to the guitarist!
Don McGalashan is to Dave Dobbyn as Kevin McCloud is to Ty Pennington.
So true! My son who is 20 went to the Mutton Birds in Wellington this year and said it was one of the best concerts he had been to. (High priase indeed) Part nostalgia I think, as he grew up sitting in the back seat of the car being blasted by various Mutton bird albums with his parents belting out the lyrics and harmonies as we weaved our way through the NZ landscape.
By that I assume you mean “less successful and less famous, but has snobbier fans”?
Nooo! Both great – I think Whaling is as classic a song as Dominion Road, look at the songs written not the current performances of each artist. And … Dave’s songs have the edge in sing a longness – don’t knock that feeling when a bunch of Kiwis at a special occasion launch into one of our many ‘national songs’ which might include more than one of Dave’s.
Grew up with Split Enz and Suburban Reptiles at art school and can see great songs in all previous comments. If singling out one great song it would be ‘Submarine Bells’ by Martin Phillips
‘Six months in a leaky boat” – “Aotearoa, rugged individual, glistens like a brook at the bottom of the world” – sums it all up.